THREE BIRD
Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman runs his record to 3-0 in win over division-leading Orioles,
BALTIMORE— For the first time this season the Blue Jays have won three games in a row, moving them back above the .500 mark.
After one night off in Boston, closer Roberto Osuna volunteered to finish a 4-3 win against the Orioles at Camden Yards, attempting a four-out save despite a painful blister that was touching and slightly under the fingernail on the middle finger of his right hand. He admitted that the discomfort caused him to throw nothing but fastballs.
Drew Storen had worked in two games in a row, and Jesse Chavez had his back lock up when he tried to warm up in the middle innings. Osuna, entering with two outs and two men on, retired the dangerous Mark Trumbo to end the eighth inning and then all three O’s he faced in the ninth for his fifth save.
“Storen was down, so they needed me,” Osuna said. “Obviously, if I can pitch, I’ll be able to do it. So I told Gibby: ‘If you want to use me tonight, I’ll be there.’ It’s kind of sore right now, but we’re going to do a couple of things with (the trainers) and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
This win was by right-hander Marcus Stroman, who ran his record to 3-0 in four starts.
The opening-day starter became the first member of the Jays’ rotation to record his fourth assignment. But he’s just one of five men in what is emerging as an “all-for-one” philosophy in the rotation.
The Jays, once again, are going to need at least one double-digit win streak to defend the AL East division crown that they clinched right here in this building last October, and they have a five-man rotation that gives them a chance to do that. It’s a starting group that does just enough to keep their team in a game on most nights, until the offence can step up and score. Simple formula. It may not be for everybody, but it’s good for the Jays. There are, effectively, blurred lines separating Nos. 1 to 5.
“I think there are certain staffs around the league that are similar to us,” the senior member of the Jays’ rotation, R.A. Dickey, explained.
“I think it’s also perpetuated a little bit by the fact we’ve got some younger guys we need to protect a little bit for the long haul. So, when we can give guys like (Aaron Sanchez), who has an innings limit, maybe an extra day here or there, we might end up doing that. Who knows? But I think in terms of talent, what’s neat about our staff is that we have, on any given day, a guy that can be a one, a guy that can be a two. I think we have a very well-balanced staff.”
Stroman understands that even though the starting pitchers have had a collectively good start to the season, this team will end up being all about the runs the offence can deliver.
“It’s just a matter of going out each inning and doing everything you can in your power to limit the damage. I’m aware of the offence that we have and that they can break out at any point. My goal is to go as deep as I can into a game and just keep our team in a position to win.”
There were question marks hanging over the heads of all five starters coming out of spring training, as other AL East rotations seemed deeper, stronger and more experienced. Stroman was replacing David Price as the ace and had never started for a full season. Marco Estrada was in his 30s before having a breakout season as a starter. J.A. Happ had been here before and bounced between starting and the bullpen with inefficient pitch counts.
Sanchez had done well in the past as an eighth-inning reliever, but the thought was that he was one quality pitch shy in his repertoire of being able to start.
Finally, there was Dickey, who has a streak of seasons with 200-plus innings that makes him a valuable commodity on a team that has several candidates for 2016 pitch limits. However, Dickey is 41and everyone hates the knuckleball.
“We want to go seven, eight, nine (innings) every time out — that’s our mentality,” Dickey said. “But the fact that the starting rotation has the ability to keep us in the games, deep into the games, it gives everybody the luxury of slotting the bullpen (roles) where they need to go. That really helps everybody, too.”
The Jays took the lead in the second inning on Tuesday against right-hander Mike Wright, a starter they’d handled well in the past. Edwin Encarnacion led off the inning with a single and came around to score on a Ryan Goins groundout. Troy Tulowitzki doubled home two more in the third past a diving Joey Rickard, and Jose Bautista singled in the fourth run in the seventh.
As for Stroman, all three of his runs allowed were on home runs. There was a solo shot by Manny Machado in the fourth and a tworun blast by Matt Wieters in the seventh, which became Stroman’s last inning, handing a slim one-run lead over to the bullpen for the final six outs.
“I left the pitch up to Wieters that he demolished,” Stroman said. “That was a bad pitch. But I felt like I was able to make the quality pitches all night.”
Stroman’s start wasn’t dominant, but it fit just right into the Jays’ apparent philosophy for starters. They lead the AL in starter innings, with 95 in 15 games, and their 3.32 ERA ranks fifth. The Jays now trail the O’s by a game and a half.